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Covered Call

BEGINNER income Capped loss

Earn rent on shares you already own.

When to use it

You own 100+ shares (or were assigned via the Wheel) and are neutral-to-mildly-bullish. Sell a 30–45 DTE call at 0.20–0.40 delta; exit at ~75% max profit.

Max profit

Premium + (call strike − cost basis).

Max loss

The stock falling, cushioned by the premium.

Payoff at expiry
illustrative shape — not to scale
profit zone loss zone X axis = stock price at expiry →
How it's built

Strikes shown low→high. Sell = collect premium · Buy = pay premium for protection or upside.

For your positions

You don't have any stock holdings of 100+ shares to apply a Covered Call to yet. Connect your broker on the Trade Log so we can analyse your positions, or browse a worked example below.

Hermes-evaluated setups

High-conviction per-ticker applications — setups with a confidence-adjusted win rate ≥ 80% over ≥20 backtested trades (95% lower bound — honest for the sample size, never a raw 100%). Avg P/L is the mean profit/loss per one-contract position.

Ticker Win Rate Avg P/L Sharpe Trades DTE
UVXY 92% +$4,451.00 2.8 43 21
SQQQ 84% +$1,058.00 1.8 31 30
REGN 92% +$395.00 6.9 43 21
LCID 83% +$343.00 2.6 30 30
HUM 89% +$306.00 6.4 31 30
APP 84% +$293.00 1.9 31 30
EQIX 85% +$285.00 2.1 43 21
ASML 87% +$273.00 1.0 63 14
PSNY 84% +$242.00 1.7 31 30
NOC 84% +$237.00 3.5 31 30
FDX 84% +$234.00 1.8 31 30
MDB 83% +$232.00 0.8 63 14
VRTX 84% +$205.00 3.3 31 30
CASY 84% +$203.00 2.5 31 30
VXX 92% +$202.00 3.8 43 21
SNPS 81% +$192.00 1.6 43 21
DDOG 83% +$180.00 2.3 30 30
MRNA 84% +$168.00 3.2 31 30
DHR 83% +$153.00 3.3 30 30
DE 81% +$147.00 1.0 43 21
AXP 84% +$123.00 6.2 31 30
ROKU 83% +$120.00 4.8 30 30
TXN 89% +$113.00 8.2 31 30
GS 81% +$112.00 0.9 43 21
BABA 89% +$112.00 5.5 31 30
SPY 81% +$106.00 1.9 43 21
QQQ 85% +$102.00 1.2 43 21
PGY 81% +$99.00 1.1 43 21
DLTR 83% +$99.00 1.5 30 30
SHOP 84% +$97.00 3.8 31 30
VOO 81% +$96.00 2.0 43 21

Backtested results are not a guarantee of future performance.